How do you regulate something your rulebook never had to deal with? That’s the question Pasco County leaders grappled with Tuesday, with county commissioners unanimously voting to pursue a 12-month timeout on new data center approvals as planners draft new rules an outdated code never anticipated.
County planning and economic development staff recommended the temporary freeze to give officials time to complete a comprehensive review of how modern data centers, ranging from small support facilities to sprawling hyperscale complexes, affect local infrastructure, the environment and energy costs.
“Our team has been leaning forward as it comes to deal with data centers, as we know this is a national issue,” said county administrator Mike Carabella. “It has a lot of implications on not only our infrastructure but also our natural resources, and our land development code provisions right now don’t really regulate the use of data centers.”
Pasco is among a growing number of local governments wrestling with how to handle centers, as communities across the country raise concerns about the demands the facilities place on power grids, water supplies and natural resources.
“We have concerns, obviously,” Carabella said, citing electricity demand and water consumption, “as well as environmental concerns, which include, but are not limited to, noise and light pollution.”
He said the county will study the issue by examining what other jurisdictions are doing, as well as reviewing white papers and academic literature.
David Engel, the county’s director of economic growth, said Commissioner Jack Mariano reached out to him nearly four months ago from Washington, D.C., to report that data centers “were the talk of the town.” Engel said he replied then that the county should start addressing it.
That day has arrived, hastened somewhat by a “deluge” of emails from concerned citizens wanting answers about how Pasco intends to handle what many see as a growing crisis.
Engel was careful to frame the moratorium as a pause, rather than a prohibition. One of his primary goals is to draw a line between smaller data centers that support local economic activity and hyperscale complexes that can drain natural resources while adding little in the way of local jobs.
He also encouraged flexibility, pointing to the massive 16 million-square-foot Speros campus in Land O’ Lakes as an example. The biotech facility will “need some data center support, because that’s part of their necessary 21st-century infrastructure to operate their activities.” Under the potential moratorium language, the board could still approve a project like that if local electric and water providers could handle the load.
The commissioners agreed with the approach, with Mariano noting some analysis on data centers would be useful.
“I think in the past couple of weeks we’ve got a lot of emails, so I can see the impetus to this,” he said. “But I also have heard some in the private sector say it’s not as bad as everybody’s saying.”
The planners and county attorneys hope to refine the ordinance language through the Planning Commission before sending it to the final board for approval, with a public hearing recommended along the way.
